In a Nutshell
pros
- Variety of plans for every type of online project
- Fast page-loading times
cons
- Support call wait times can be lengthy
- Can’t change themes without losing content
GoDaddy at a glance
Ideal For
GoDaddy is ideal for a user that has a little bit of web admin experience or is planning on creating a very simple site. I would shy away from recommending GoDaddy for the first time Ecommerce customer. There are so many fantastic tools and services that can support your store, but they can be tricky to use.
Hosting Features
GoDaddy provides technical features like unlimited storage, bandwidth, and MySQL databases, as well as marketing credits, a web builder, and one-click installation with every GoDaddy account. Where GoDaddy really pushes the boundaries is with features like GoDaddy Auctions where customers can bid on, buy, and sell domain names. There is also a GoDaddy Bookkeeping service that helps its Ecommerce sites stay afloat. Finally, where other providers might offer one plan, users can select from multiple GoDaddy SSL certificate plans to keep their customers’ information safe and secure.
GoDaddy offers 2 tiers of hosting plans, the first is designed for light to medium use. The second tier is GoDaddy Pro, designed for heavier duty usage.
Tier 1: Economy
Economy gives you everything you need to get your website up and running on the web. With one website, 100GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, up to 100 email addresses, and a free domain for the length of your initial plan, this option is good for getting started and should be more than ample if you don't have any particularly grand online plans.
Tier 1: Deluxe
With Deluxe you can create an unlimited number of websites, all with unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and up to 500 email addresses, alongside the standard free domain registration offer.
Tier 1: Ultimate
Ultimate offers unlimited websites, storage, and bandwidth, up to 1000 email addresses, premium DNS, a one-year SSL certificate (for extra security), plus double the processing power and memory when you use GoDaddy Ultimate and cPanel with Linux.
Tier 2: GoDaddy Pro
For more significant undertakings, GoDaddy Pro offers a souped up service to business customers that includes a range of managed, self-managed, and fully managed packages for Linux and Windows. These range from 1GB RAM with 40GB storage and 1TB of bandwidth per month, up to 8GB RAM with 240GB storage and 8TB of bandwidth monthly.
Security and Reliability
Recent reports suggest GoDaddy has vastly improved its security, with the GoDaddy security team monitoring the network 24/7 for suspicious activity and protecting against DDoS attacks.
GoDaddy has always been highly reliable. If the service provides you with anything less than 99% uptime you can claim a refund for the month. It also offers some of the fastest page loading times on the web.
Technology
GoDaddy web hosting uses cPanel, adding a level of third-party familiarity to a sometimes vast menu of proprietary services. Basic plans allow for 50 GoDaddy FTP users while some plans have unlimited users. With GoDaddy DNS management, users have complete control over how they set up the hierarchy of their online project.
Less obvious technologies are at work for some of the other unique products and services offered by the company, including GoDaddy Bookkeeping which could use some improvement.
Pricing
GoDaddy has webhosting plans available for every budget and every requirement. Their starter economy plan is only £2.99 per month with a 3-month minimum. The Delux plan is GoDaddy’s best value. It offers customers an upgrade to 150 GB of webspace, 500 email accounts and 25 MySQL databases. The Delux plan is priced at £4.49 per month when you purchase a full year plan, and offers the Best Value for your money.The Ultimate plan affords customers the most features, for those who need plenty of control, lots of space and support for high volume traffic. The Ultimate Plan is priced at £6.49 per month.
Customers can save even more by taking advantage of the prepay discounts. Prepay discounts are set according to the following schedule:
- 12 months – save 5 percent
- 24 months – save 10 percent
- 36 months – save 15 percent
For customers who need even more features and security, GoDaddy also has virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated servers available at affordable rates.
Ease of Use
GoDaddy is a fairly easy-to-use hosting provider. The integration of the industry standard third-party control panel, cPanel, makes migrating a site from another host very simple and even first-time users will easily master many of the GoDaddy templates to make their web pages pop. Ecommerce customers will appreciate GoDaddy’s quick shopping cart installation. Also, with so many one-click tools available, the company does offer a significant amount of energy-saving devices.
Website Builder Features
The speed with which customers can get up and running with GoDaddy is one of its strongest selling points. In just a few clicks you can use the GoDaddy website builder to get all set. With one more click, you can install one of over 200 apps to help you build, market, or monitor your GoDaddy online store, including Joomla, WordPress and Drupal.
If you prefer some support with building your site, I recommend investigating the GoDaddy web design with a complete hosting plan in one neat package, with up to 300 themes, Office 365 business email, and a mobile site included for Business and Business Plus customers. Many GoDaddy website builder reviews heap high praise on this professional, easy-to-use service.
Both the website builder and web design services can be used on GoDaddy transfer domains, too. Bring your old site over and freshen it up with GoDaddy’s tools.
Customer Service
Unlike some other providers, GoDaddy can't boast one-minute average wait times for telephone support. However, if you really are stuck, you can expect to be put on the line to a real expert. You may have to wait a little while for your issue to be escalated, though.
GoDaddy’s help consists of a substantial support section, which should be your go-to option when you run up against an issue. If you can't find online guidance for your problem, you might have to call one of the many toll-free GoDaddy phone numbers from anywhere in the world, 24/7—just make sure you clear a gap in your schedule.
Free Offers
With all of the discounts offered by GoDaddy and the overall affordable pricing, the company’s hosting services are generally a solid value. Aside from what is included in the annual hosting plans, like GoDaddy’s free email and domains, or one-month trials for Ecommerce, payroll and accounting products, we did not find free offers from GoDaddy.
cPanel
Fans of cPanel will get to use their favorite industry standard control panel with GoDaddy. With cPanel, users can perform simple things like changing email settings to more complicated tasks such as adding, editing, or deleting their GoDaddy CNAME record. For all of the Linux hosting plans offered by GoDaddy, cPanel is the primary account management software. Like most Windows platforms, GoDaddy’s uses the Plesk control panel.
VPS Hosting
The company offers 5 tiers of virtual private server hosting on both Linux and Windows platforms. For all of the customers using VPS, GoDaddy provides managed services to perform monitoring, backups, and patching. Users have administrative access to install PHO, modules, and server-level proxy scripts.
Shared Hosting
GoDaddy shared hosting plans are very affordable and come packed with features, which may be part of why GoDaddy is the world’s largest registrar of domain names. All GoDaddy shared hosting plans include tons of storage and email addresses, one-click installation of apps and domain registration, and 24/7 security monitoring and protection.
Because of their market share and industry experience, the company is able to confidently provide both Linux and Windows hosting options. With 3 tiers of plans available on each of the 2 platforms, there should be a fit for nearly every shared hosting online project.
Dedicated Hosting
GoDaddy has 3 different levels of dedicated hosting management. Users that want to perform all of the administrative and development tasks can opt for the self-managed plans, and those that want the GoDaddy staff to take the reins might go with the fully-managed option. For the middle-of-the-roaders out there, the company has a third plan that lets the user step in whenever they choose to make content changes, while the people at GoDaddy perform more of the monitoring and maintenance duties.
Cloud Hosting
GoDaddy does not have true cloud hosting plans. However, for an hourly fee with a monthly limit, users can store their online projects on the cloud as opposed to one of the company’s servers. The primary benefit is that customers only pay for the resources that they need. This makes GoDaddy cloud hosting a great option for developers that are constantly tinkering with their site.
Unlike many providers, GoDaddy does not offer unlimited email addresses. In reality, that is not too problematic. Even the smallest shared hosting plan comes with 100 email accounts. For businesses that demand even greater email communication capabilities, GoDaddy has a very affordable professional email package. One GoDaddy login provides access to both the control panel of the main project as well as to the email account. This account also includes GoDaddy webmail so that users can stay connected with their customers and adjust their GoDaddy email settings from anywhere in the world, even from a hand-held device.
Bottom Line
With a whole host of options, themes, and hundreds of apps, GoDaddy is a fast, reliable, and affordable web host for online projects of all scales and scopes. Tech-savvy developers will love GoDaddy’s toolbox full of gadgets. If you're not at home in front of the control panel and run into trouble, getting the help you need might be a challenge (according to some GoDaddy hosting reviews). With that said, options like GoDaddy's own site builder offer a more comfortable starting point for beginners, allowing you to build a website without needing to understand the nuts and bolts.
